PwC also released 2014 research that pitched a $37 billion increase in Australia’s GDP – driven by innovation and the digital economy – albeit with a longer lead time through to 2024.

Pulling the triggers

Unlike other countries that form the basis of the new Accenture-Oxford report, Australia would need to pull basically all three digital “levers” – investing in accelerators, technology and skills – simultaneously to hit the 2.4 percent GDP growth target.

If anything, the modelling for Australia favours investment being prioritised towards digital accelerators, though not at the expense of anything else that drives the digital economy.

This is in stark contrast to the findings around other major economies, where Accenture believes clearly favouring one lever over another will result in optimal gains in GDP growth.

The big picture for Accenture, however, is for all of the world’s top economies to simultaneously pursue digital measures that contribute modest improvements to GDP.

It sees a “multiplier effect” occurring if this was to happen, amounting to some $2 trillion “of additional global economic output by 2020”.